Maybe it's time to change
by LollipopPOP
Summary: The town of Erinsborough is rocked to it's core when the body of missing girl Bridget Parker shows up. Things kept even more complicated when her four best friends start receiving mysterious messages.
1. Chapter 1: Haunted by the past

**Cause nothing stays the same, maybe it's time to change.**

**Chapter One: **_The past is back to haunt us_

**Maybe I'm a dreamer**

Rachel Kinski stared out the car window as her step-mother pulled up at Erinsborough High. Just seeing the school brought back memories, some good, some not so good.

It had been a year since Rachel had seen Erinsborough High and she didn't quite know how to feel. She stepped out of the car, dragging her old tattered school bag behind her.

"Good luck Rach" her brother Zeke said as he slid out of the car, he patted her on the shoulder as he passed "something tells me you're gonna need it"

Zeke head off into the crowds off students heading into the school leaving Rachel standing on the sidewalk in front of the front gate alone.

Someone turned and smiled at her. It was Rose David they used to have math together before Rachel moved. She looked different; her hair was longer, her face softer and she definitely taller. How many other things had changed in the year that she'd been gone?

...

Declan was surprised to see Rachel standing at his locker bank fiddling with the door on the locker next to his. He hadn't seen Rachel in a year, they talked on the phone and emailed as much as possible and he'd never once mentioned coming home. He quickly covered his surprised and walked towards her. "So you're back to slumming it with us are you?" Declan asked opening his locker. She shrugged as she shoved her Chemistry textbook into the small locker "I guess so"

"Wow" Declan drawled sarcastically "could you be any more excited?"

"I've missed you too Dec" she said grinning and pulling him into a tight hug. She really had, she really, really did.

...

"So, I'm thinking Charlie's, Friday at seven?" Donna was saying as she and Ringo walked down their hall to their first class, she paused expectantly waiting for his answer. Upon noticing that Ringo wasn't listening she added "and I'm thinking of joining the circus, maybe as a clown, I've always had a thing for big red fake noses"

"Mmm...that's good" Donna groaned and stepped in front of him gaining his attention.

"What is with you?" she asked placing a hand on his shoulder.

"Nothing" he argued.

"Don't you dare lie to me Ringo Brown" she told him "is this about Rachel?" as if she knew Donna was talking about her Rachel herself appeared in the hallway laughing at something Declan had just said.

"Speak of the devil" Donna mumbled under her breath. The last time either Donna or Ringo had seen Rachel was when she'd left for her fancy English boarding school last year.

Ringo pulled away from Donna and headed towards Rachel "Hey Rach!" Rachel looked up looking like a deer caught in the headlights. She quickly regained composure and jumped into action pulling Declan down another hall with her, leaving Ringo standing alone in the middle of the hallway.

Ringo sighed, yep she definitely avoiding him. He thought maybe last night when she claimed that she was really tiered and disappeared into her bedroom almost as soon as she got home that maybe she really was after all she had just flown in from England but now, yep now he definitely knew she was avoiding him.

...

"Please do not make this a repeat of last year" Declan pleaded as Rachel looked over her shoulder to see if Ringo was following. "I can't be stuck in the middle again"

"It's not going to be" she assured him "I deal with him tomorrow, it's my first day back, I just want to spend it having fun with you and not dealing with Ringo"

"Good plan, milkshakes on me after school?" he asked. She nodded smiling.

"Sounds good"

...

Donna caught up with Rachel at the lockers as she gathering her things after the last class of the day.

"So you're back" she could have come up with a better opener but for now anyway this one would have to do.

"Yes I am" Rachel replied.

"Well, it's good to see you again"

"You too"

"Want to go grab a coffee or something?" Donna asked leaning against the nearby banks of graffiti lockers.

"Can't, sorry" Rachel replied pulling a stack of books from her locker and holding them up to show Donna "I've got a stack of homework" Rachel wasn't quite sure why she lied to Donna or why she just didn't invite her to join Declan and herself at Harold's store, she just didn't. It wouldn't have felt right anyway.

"Oh well, bye then"

"Bye"

...

"What's with Mr Redon anyway, he was one of the nice teachers when I left?" Rachel asked as the two of them found a table inside Harold's store.

"Justin Hunter's in a lot of his classes" Declan told her. Rachel laughed. Justin Hunter was probably the most annoying boy she'd ever met.

"That explains it" she said just as her phone vibrated in her pocket with an incoming message. She fished it out of her backpack and opened it. The text came from a private number and read:

So still not talking to Ringo are you? Shame I always like you two together.

B x.

"Who's B?" Declan asked reading over her shoulder.

"Probably just that strange girl from school" Rachel replied hurriedly closing her phone "nothing to worry about"

...

"So things still awkward between you and Rach?" Zeke asked. Donna nodded. Things were very awkward, long gone were the days when they could talk about anything and everything. Everything changed when Bridget Parker disappeared a year ago. Bridget was sort of the glue that had held them all together, she had brought them together in the first place.

"It's not like I expected us to be best friends or anything, but it's like I barely know her anymore" she replied playing with the straw in her milkshake.

"Well that's what happens when you haven't seen someone for a year" Zeke replied. He was not worried about his sister and good friend and their lack of a friendship. It was only Rachel's first day back, if things hadn't changed by the end of the month then maybe he'd have something to worry about.


	2. Chapter 2: Cat & mouse

**Chapter Two:** _Let's play a little game, its called cat and mouse. _

**Maybe I'm misunderstood**

"So how was school today?" Susan eagerly asked when Rachel walked through the front door. Susan was one of those parents who liked to know what her children were up to, Rachel liked that, most of the time anyway.

"Pretty good actually, it was really great to see Declan again"

"What about Donna?" Susan asked "was she glad to see you?"

"I guess so" Rachel shrugged "I didn't really talk to them much"

"Why not?" she asked as she searched for a chopping board in the kitchen cupboard "you two used to be the best of friends"

"Well, people change"

...

Still Missing the Erinsborough news proclaimed the next morning, the one year aniversary of Bridget Parker's disappearance underneath the headline was the same photo of Bridget that had been used on her missing person fliers.

"Can you believe it?" Donna asked Declan out on the street that morning. She'd found him standing in his driveway staring at the newspaper in the same way he looked whenever the subject of Bridget was brought up, all sad and distant.

"Yeah, a year on and still...nothing" he replied tucking the newspaper under his arm "it's like she disappeared into thin air"

"Do you ever wonder if she's still alive?" Donna asked tucking a lock of blonde hair behind her ear "you know living it up on some beach somewhere" Declan laughed.

"Maybe, you never really knew with her, it's strange, we were supposed to be her closest friends and we barely knew her" he pointed out. He was right; Bridget had always encouraged them to spill all their secrets to her but never told them anything about her own.

"Hey, want to go for a coffee at Harold's?" he asked "bring Ringo, I'll bring Rach, the four of us haven't hung out in ages" Donna smiled and nodded.

...

"Ringo's here?" Rachel asked in surprise as she spotted the boy sitting at a table on the other side of the story "you said it was just going to be you, me and Donna"

"I lied" Declan said giving her a slight push in the direction of Donna and Ringo's table "you said you'd sort things out today, I'm just helping you"

"I cannot believe you" she snapped obviously mad but as soon as she got near the table she put on a fake smile "hey guys!"

...

All four of their phones went off at the same time. "That's strange" Donna commented while the others just looked sort of confused.

_Now that you're all in the same country the games can begin. Have fun, I know I will._

_B._

"Well that's just creepy" Rachel replied staring at the small screen on her phone.

"Really creepy" Declan commented. He unlike Rachel had been able to tears his eyes away from the message and was fiddling with his phone, twisting and turning it in his hands.

...

The first thing Declan noticed upon walking back onto Ramsay Street was the rather large moving van outside number twenty six which had one been the Parker's home, as in Bridget Parker's home. The second thing was a rather pretty blonde girl dumping a box labelled Bridget's things on the curb next to a sign the simply read **FREE.** His stomach churned as he caught sight on an old football trophy in the box and remembered the stories she used to tell them about how she won the trophy, they changed every single time but they never failed to make him smile.

He hadn't even realized that he'd walked over until the girl was talking to him "you can take any of it" she was saying jerking her head towards the **FREE** sign "it's all free"

"Oh"

"Yeah" she said placing her hands on her hips "the previous owner left them in my room" so she didn't know about the whole Bridget's been missing for a year thing.

"I'm Haylee" the girl is saying sticking out her hand for him to shake "Haylee Monroe"

"I'm Declan, welcome to the street" he smiles at her and shakes her small hand.

"Thanks" she grins tucking a strand of blonde hair behind her ear. She looks down at one of Bridget's boxes.

"Did you know her?" she asked "Bridget I mean, did you know her?"

He nods. "Yeah I knew her" he replied "she was one of my best friends"

"What happened to her?" Haylee asked kicking at the ground. When he doesn't reply she adds "you don't have to tell me if you don't want to"

"One day she was here, the next she wasn't" he told her "it's simple really". She has this look on her face as if she knows that's not the whole story but doesn't press. He picks up one of the Bridget boxes, the one with the football trophy in it. Bridget wouldn't want her things going to just anyone.

"I should get going" he tells Haylee "maybe I'll see you later"

"Maybe" she calls back.

...

The moving van is gone by that night and in its place is an army of police cars, ambulances, news vans and a single coroners van.

"What's going on?" Donna asked as she ran out of number twenty two and towards number twenty six. Her gaze flickered between Rachel, Ringo and Declan who were all standing together behind a line of yellow police tape. Rachel whipped around to look at her, she obviously had been crying her eyes were red and puffy.

"They found a body" she said "Bridget's body"

"She was buried in the backyard" Ringo added "right near the memorial tree"

The Parkers and Donna, Declan and Ringo planted a memorial tree six months after Bridget disappeared. It made Donna feel sick that Bridget had been lying dead in the ground just metres away.

They'd all been waiting for news for a year and finally it came. This was not the news they had hoped for. For some reason Donna had thought that Bridget was still alive, she used to imagined her walking into their English class they were supposed to share ready to brag about what she had done since she disappeared for weeks.

Forgetting all her own worries and sadness Donna walked over to Declan and flung her arms around him. He had to be hurting the most he truly loved Bridget they had dated for a while but it didn't work out.

"So she's really gone" Zeke said after a while.

"She's really gone" Ringo echoed. Donna and Declan separated and Rachel pulled them all together in a group hug like Bridget used to do. "Friends for life" she used to say after them.

...

So Bridget's dead and gone but B's not and I'm going to have some fun

B.

Rachel raked a hand through her hair and buried her phone in the top drawer of her bedside table. Today had not been a good day. There was the awkward lunch with Ringo, Bridget's body being found and now there was another text from B. She'd been wracking her mind for the last hour trying to think of who B was but she couldn't think of anyone who would want to do this.

So much for a good first week back. There was a soft knock on Rachel's door.

"Come in" Rachel called wiping a stray tear from her cheek. Zeke poked his head around the door.

"Are you okay?" he asked stepping into her bedroom "I mean after everything that's happened today"

"Not really" she admitted "I always thought she'd turn up one day"

"I didn't" Zeke said. Rachel looked up at him, what did he mean by that? "I always knew something had happened to her, she had a lot of enemies" Rachel was a little scared of her brother at that moment; she'd never been scared of him before. The way he was talking it sounded like he knew Bridget's was dead before everyone else.


	3. Chapter 3: Don't need your sympathy

Chapter Three: Don't need your sympathy

Maybe you're not seeing the side of me you should

The funeral was scheduled three days after Bridget's body was found. For Declan those three days were hell, there were lots filled with sympathetic glances and questions like "are you okay?" and "do you know what happened to her?"

It was all anybody could talk about. He'd often walk past groups of people who'd stop talking and stare at him when they spotted him. They'd obviously been talking about Bridget "yeah that's him!" he heard one year seven girl say to her friend "the guy that was friends with the dead girl"

...

"Look Donna we need to talk" Ringo said dragging his girlfriend into an empty classroom. Donna's went into high alert mode, nothing good ever came out of 'we need to talk'.

"I...I think we need to break up" he blurted out "after everything that's happened lately, I think it's best if I just had some time alone"

"Is this because your still in love with Rachel?" Donna snapped tears welling in her eyes. She loved Ringo, she didn't want to lose him.

"No it's not Rachel" he was quick to assure

"But there is someone isn't there?" she asked stepping closer to him. He didn't deny it. She knew it. He was dumping her for some other girl, wasn't he?

"I've got to go" she said and ran from the room. This had been one of the worst weeks of her life.

...

"I'm just so sick of people talking about her, you know?" Ringo complained when he joined Declan at Harold's for lunch. Declan nodded in agreement. He knew what he was talking about.

"It will die down soon enough" Declan said "it's just big news right now, it's not like people get murdered in Erinsborough everyday"

"Yeah, but she was our friend" Ringo snapped slamming his hand down on the table "everyone's acting like they knew her so well, they didn't, nobody knew her like we did"

Declan let him have his little angry moment. It was better for him to let it out now then let him bottle it up and explode later and hurt someone or himself.

"Shouldn't Donna be here by now?" Declan asked changing the subject and scanning the cafe for the blonde girl.

"Oh she's not coming, she said something about talking to Rach" he lied. His phone beeped with news of a new text message.

Liar, liar. Why not just tell your best friend you just broke your girlfriend's heart? What are you hiding Brown?

B x

Ringo looked around for someone he knew that could have sent the text message but the only person he knew in the store was Elle who was working behind the counter and Declan and he knew neither had sent the message.

"B?" Declan asked noticing his scared expression. Ringo nodded and closed his phone "I thought she was gone, I haven't got a message from B since the one we all got last time I was here"

"Well, lucky you" Ringo retorted sarcastically rising from the table and grabbing his bag "look I've got to go"

"I thought we were having lunch?" Declan asked surprised. Ringo wasn't one to make plans and ditch a few minutes in.

"We'll talk later okay, I've got things to do" Ringo called as he left the store.

...

"So he just broke up with you, out of the blue?" Zeke asked as he and Donna ate lunch together. Donna shrugged biting into her sandwich.

"I should have probably have seen it coming" she said swallowing her food "he's been distant for months now"

"Sometimes things don't work out the way we want Donna" he said "doesn't mean it was your fault"

"You're right Zeke" she nodded shuffling closer to him "and I know just the way to get over him" she grinned, leaned forward and kissed him.

...

"So what's this I hear about you and Donna breaking up?" Rachel asked catching up to Ringo in the hall.

"How did you know?" he asked. He hadn't told her and he doubted Donna would have told her either. She rolled her eyes as if it was the most obvious thing ever.

"You said 'we need to talk' and Donna ran out crying, it wasn't hard to put the pieces together" she said teasingly, she suddenly turned serious "so if you don't mind me asking, why did you break up with her?"

"I told her I wanted alone time, but I think I'm in love with someone else"

...

"Hey!" Haylee called spotting Declan as he walked back into Erinsborough High "Declan, right?'

"Right and you're Haylee?" he asked, she nodded grinning widely. She seemed to be in a good mood today which was infectious; he saw her grin and grinned too.

"It's so nice to see a friendly face, people around here are really odd" she said laughingly flicking her blonde fringe out of her face "so how's things?"

"Good and you?" he asked as they paused in the middle of the hallway facing each other. Declan was glad that most people were still at lunch for some reason he didn't feel like talking in front of anyone else "I mean with the whole dead body in your back yard thing?"

"We're staying at Lassiters until things die down" she told him dropping her grin, he dropped his too "things are crazy, if it's not the police hanging around it's reporters, you had me thinking this Bridget girl moved or something, I had no idea she just disappeared into thin air"

"Well it's not really you tell people you just met" she nodded in agreement as they started walking again

"No it's not" she said "but someone should have told us, I just can't get the image out of my head, my little sister's having nightmares and my mum's freaking out about everything"

He wrapped an arm around her shoulder and pulled her into a hug. He'd only know her two days but it felt natural. Like he'd known her his whole life. It was the same way he felt around Bridget.

"Thanks" she muttered when they parted wiping a tear from her cheek.

...


	4. Chapter 4: Who are you?

**Chapter Four:** _Who are you? I just don't know you anymore._

Ringo stared at his reflection in the mirror. He was wearing a suit that he knew didn't fit him quite right. Bridget wouldn't mind, she was never one to care too much about fashion. But for some reason he had to do his best to make the funeral perfect. Showing up in an ill-fitting suit would not make things perfect, but it was all he had.

"You ready?" Rachel asked fastening her necklace as she stepped into his room "we've got to get going soon or we'll be late" she looked as stunning as ever in the knee length black dress she was wearing. He shook his head, he shouldn't think about that right now.

"Yeah" he said catching one final look at himself in the mirror "I'm ready"

"Things will work out" Rachel said as they walked towards the front door "you'll see, everything will work out"

Ringo knew she didn't believe it, that she was only saying it for his benefit. He smiled and nodded anyway.

...

Almost a quarter of Erinsborough High was packed into the church. There were people standing many rows back. The murder of Bridget Parker was a big thing for Erinsborough. Many people patted Donna, Declan, Rachel and Ringo on the shoulder or the arm as a sign of sympathy and comfort as the four of them passed through the rows of people. Mrs. Parker had insisted they all sit up the front row "It's how she would've wanted it" she said.

"Hello" Donna greeted when Ringo and Rachel took their seats up front with Donna and Declan, her voice was monotone, her face void of any expression.

"Hi" Rachel replied keeping her eyes straight ahead at the large photos of Bridget. There was even a photo of Bridget from the night she went missing; the very last picture there would ever be alive. She looked happy, her arms slung around Donna and Rachel.

Rachel could remember Bridget going on about how the future would be bright for all of them.

If only she could see how things turned out.

...

"Well that was...sad" Donna said when they all gathered out the front of the church once the funeral ended.

"Funeral's usually are" Rachel replied tucking a strand of hair behind her ear. She refused to look anyone in the eye instead staring down at her shoes as if they were the most interesting thing in the world. Four phones went off almost simultaneously.

"I'm still here and I know everything B x" Donna read from her phone, the others nodding to show they'd received the same message.

"Everything?" Ringo repeated "what does that mean?"

"It means this person is a freakin' stalker" Rachel snapped "why us?"

"Look, we've got nothing to worry about guys" Declan assured them "it's not like we've got any huge secrets that she can tell, right?"

Ringo face suddenly turned from angry to nervous and guilty. He had a secret, one that he couldn't let become public.

"Right, so Charlie's?" Donna said cheering up and clapping her hands together.

...

Rachel stopped Ringo as he was about to follow Declan and Donna into Charlie's.

"I just wanted to say" she said nervously "that what you told me the other day, I won't tell anyone okay"

"B might" Ringo grunted. Rachel rolled her eyes, she was so sick of this 'B'. Why was this person doing this to them. She couldn't think of a single thing they could've done to make some hate them all so bad

"B doesn't know" she reminded him "just because she says she knows all our secrets doesn't mean she does"

She rubbed his arm comfortingly when he didn't reply.

"Even if your secret gets out you'll still have me and Zeke and Donna and..."

"I know" he interrupted smiling at her "now come on, they're probably waiting for us inside"

...

"How are you two?" Susan asked when Ringo and Rachel walked through the front door of number twenty eight. They'd spent hours at Charlie's playing pool with Donna and Declan. Things still seemed a little frosty between Donna and Ringo after their breakup but they both seemed to be trying to get along.

"Tiered" Rachel replied slipping her coat off her shoulders "it's been a long day"

"Yeah me too" Ringo nodded slipping into the bedroom he shared with Zeke.

"How are you really?" Susan asked once Ringo left the room "with being back and the whole Bridget thing?"

"I'm coping" Rachel told her smiling at her step-mother. She was coping, she wasn't about to break down and cry but she wasn't to just get over it.

"Are you sure?" Susan asked rising from the couch where she'd been sitting and heading towards Rachel. She nodded and smiled again.

"Yeah, yeah I am"

...

Donna received another text from the mysterious 'B' that night.

They say blondes have more fun. Want to find out? Be at Rose Street Dinner in Eden Hills tomorrow at 5pm.

B.

The text was again from an unknown number. She'd already concluded that 'B' was not a person to be messed with. After all she had all their phone numbers and apparently knew all their secrets. There was only one way to deal with this, she would just have to be in Eden Hills tomorrow at 5.


	5. Chapter 5: I'm caught in your aftershock

**Chapter Five: **I'm caught in your after shock

Declan sighed and paced the length of the lounge room, holding the phone to his ear with one hand, a list of names scribbled into a small notebook in the other. He was talking to Riley, Bridget's brother who had left Erinsborough a month after Bridget went missing.

He had spent most of the morning speaking to old friends and family of Bridget. He was hoping to find a lead on the B case. Not knowing who was terrorizing them was driving him crazy. He'd only been able to rule out a few people Ringo, Rachel, Didge, Donna and himself, and he wasn't even a hundred percent sure if he was right about a few of them.

"Bridget did seem a little off those last few weeks" Riley was saying "I think something was wrong"

"Really, how?" there was a moment of silence on the other end as Riley took a moment to think.

"She was a little…jumpy" he was saying "like someone was watching her"

"Thank you Riley, tell me if you remember anything else okay?"

"Okay" he hung up and scribbled

_Riley says Bridget was jumpy, someone watching her _

This really didn't help him at all; Bridget acted secretive and paranoid a lot. It was the way she was; she never liked to spill anything.

…

Donna stepped into the Rose Street Dinner, the bell on the door ringing behind her. The place was smaller than she expected just a few booths and a small counter where a waitress in a red uniform dress and a white apron proudly advertising the name Rose Street Dinner in fancy red script across the pocket was standing.

She stepped up to the counter and looked around for whoever or whatever she was supposed to be here for. The waitress, behind the counter looked her up and down as if she'd been waiting for her.

"Are you Donna?" she asked when Donna nodded she pulled a large yellow envelope from the pocket of her apron.

"Someone left this for you, said you'd know what it was about" she said sounding surprisingly uninterested before walking away to take an order from a nearby customer. Donna took the envelope, did a quick check around her to make sure no one was watching and pulled out the one piece of paper the envelope contained.

The letters were cut out of a magazine, like it was straight out of some movie or TV show.

_Just sit and wait. You're going to do me a little favour._

It didn't take long for her to find out what she was waiting for. Ringo stepped inside his head ducked, avoiding anyone's gaze. Donna was scared that Ringo would see her but from what it looked like she in the clear.

Ringo found a booth in the far corner of the dinner and hid his face behind the menu. Evan Weaver a kid that most people would call a 'nerd' or 'geek' stepped in not even five minutes later. He immediately went towards Ringo's booth and sat down opposite him. Donna felt sick; Evan was notorious around Erinsborough High for selling homework to the other kids at school. Her worst fears were confirmed when Evan slid a folder across the table and Ringo slid a wad of cash back. Her phone rang in her pocket, attracting most people's eyes towards her, including Ringo's. He looked up at her in surprise as she ran from the dinner.

She ran the whole way to the bus stop, puffing and panting as she climbed onboard the bus. She found a seat near the back and finally checked her phone.

_Buying homework from other kids, isn't that an expellable offence? _

_B_

…

Rachel had invited herself in. He'd been planning on finishing his English essay before she turned up, but it would just have to wait now. He'd been tempted to kick her out but she just seemed so down.

"So, any progress on the 'B' case yet?" Declan asked as Rachel reached across him to grab a piece of popcorn from the large bowl on the coffee table. They were both curled up on the couch, half watching the movie Rachel had chosen,

"Nope" Rachel said with a groan, throwing her head back "I still have no idea who B is, it sounds like the texts are from Bridget but she's six feet under now"

"Could be from one of her other friends" Declan pointed out "you know the new ones she was hanging out with before she, you know, died"

"Nah" Rachel said shaking her head "she didn't trust them enough to tell them where she brought her clothes let alone all her major secrets"

Rachel grabbed the bowl of popcorn of the coffee table and threw a piece into her mouth. A bang from the other end of the house startled her and she dropped the bowl which shattered all over the floor.

"Oh my god" she exclaimed hurriedly "I'm so sorry" she bent down to pick up the pieces but Declan stopped her.

"I think someone's in the house" he whispered to her. Rachel's eyes widened in fear and surprise, weird, stalker like texts was one thing but a break in was another thing.

"You're kidding right, please tell me you're kidding" he wasn't kidding Rachel soon learned when they both heard the unmistakable sound of a window being shattered.

"This is not good, this is not good" Rachel repeated to herself reaching for her mobile ready to call the police "don't you dare go up there" she snapped at Declan. Whoever was up there could be dangerous, it just wasn't worth it. But as soon as she turned her back he was gone.

He crept up the stairs, trying to make as little sound as possible as not to alert whoever was up there to his presence. He probably should have thought this through a little more; he had no plan, nothing to defend himself if things turned violent. He stopped outside his bedroom door, where he was sure the noises were coming from. After a few moments of silence he slowly pushed open the door to find that whoever was in his room was gone and the room itself was destroyed. Most of his things were broken but it seemed like nothing was actually missing. He ran to his wardrobe where he had stashed the box of Bridget's things, it was gone.

His phone beeped in his pocket. He almost ignored it but something in the back of his mind told him that he should probably check it.

_This is your first warning, stop looking._

_B_

So they already knew B was a creepy stalker, but now B was apparently very dangerous


	6. Chapter 6: Playing with fire

**Chapter six: **Playing with fire

"Any idea who did this, who would want Didge's stuff?" Rachel asked as she dumped the remains of the popcorn bowl in the bin. She sighed as she did so, it was an expensive looking bowl and while the Robinson's could probably buy hundreds more she still felt bad about breaking it. The police had just left. They claimed that it was an isolated incident, that the thief had gotten what they wanted and that it was unlikely they return. They'd be interviewing the neighbours the next day after, hoping someone had seen someone because nobody at number twenty two had actually seen the intruder. Rachel and Declan were the only two in the house Rebecca had gone next door to inform them of the situation in case whoever did this came back. Declan really doubted they would, this person had left their message.

He silently handed his phone to her which was open to B's last text message. Rachel read it and angrily snapped the phone shut.

"We can't do this anymore, we've got to call the police" she snapped dropping the phone down onto the coffee table. It landed with a thud, bounced off the table and rolled underneath it.

"We're not calling the police Rach" Declan told her.

"Why not?" she yelled throwing her hands in the air in anger "why not?"

"Because I think B knows"

"Knows what?" she exclaimed

"Everything!" he yelled "about the Angus thing, the thing with my dad, everything!"

The Angus thing involved Rachel dating a teacher for many months; he left last year to teach in America. It had apparently been his dream to teach in another country. At the time Rachel was convinced she loved him but now she wasn't quite sure if she ever really did. Declan and herself were the only one's apart from Angus that even knew about it. Well the only living people that knew, Bridget knew because she was Rachel's cover story a lot of the time. Declan suspect she agreed to it so she'd have more dirt on Rachel.

The thing with Declan's dad involved him setting fire to his father's car when he showed up in town. Declan's father was a violent sociopath who'd been stalking Declan and his mother for many years. He'd found out where they were living again and Declan had just snapped. His father died not long after in a hospital bed at Erinsborough Hospital, it had nothing to do with Declan, he had some sort of kidney problems.

"She can't know" Rachel snapped. B might say she knew everything, but she couldn't. There was no way.

"She wouldn't be doing this if she didn't really have something on us" he pointed out "we could just report them, the police would eventually find them"

"But if they had something on us, they could take us down with them" Rachel said slowly finally catching on. She sat back down on the couch and put her head in her hands.

…

Rachel, Ringo, Donna and Declan spent the night in the living room of number twenty two. Zeke was invited too but had turned down the offer saying he had an early start in the morning. Ringo spent the night on edge, just waiting for Donna to bring up the topic of the paid for homework, but she never did. She was too focused on the break in. Ringo knew that he wasn't out of the woods yet though Donna could bring it up any time she wanted.

"So you think it was B?" Donna asked resting her head on the pillow. She was obviously tiered; it was around 1am now. They'd been sitting up for hours just talking about everything really. This was the first time B had even been mentioned.

"I know it was" Declan replied tiredly "B sent me a text"

"I'm so sick of this" Ringo snapped angrily "they can't just break into your house and get away with it!"

"Can we not talk about this right now?" Declan asked. He was exhausted, it had been a long day and he really didn't want a fight to start like they often did when Ringo grew angry.

"Yeah, sorry" Ringo said sheepishly.

"Let's get some sleep" Rachel said slipping into the mother hen role like usual "we can figure this out in the morning"

…

Rachel woke at about 3am to find the room freezing. The front door was open cold air blowing in from outside. When Rachel stood up to shut it she noticed that two of their little group was gone. Donna was still dozing peacefully nearby but neither Declan nor Ringo were anywhere to be seen. She had no clue where they could be, she had thought both of them would have slept like logs after everything that had happed lately. They both really needed it. She stuck her head out the door, wondering if they'd be outside but there was no sign of them. "Donna" Rachel whispered to her sleeping friend shaking her leg to wake her up. Donna groaned and slowly opened her eyes.

"What's going on?" she asked sitting up now fully awake she noticed the two missing boys "where's Declan and Ringo?"

"Dec's gone" Ringo said appearing from behind them on the stairs that led to the upstairs of the house "I've looked everywhere for him"

"Gone?" Donna repeated running a hand through her now messy blonde hair.

"Gone" Ringo confirmed "I've tried calling him but he's not picking up"

"He'll pick up for me" Rachel said. She knew that if he wasn't answering his phone for Ringo that there wasn't much chance that he wouldn't answer for her, but there was no harm in trying right?

She pulled her phone out of her bag; Declan was speed dial 3 in her phone after Susan and Zeke. She called him so much it was just easier. After a while he picked up. The others moved closer to listen in.

"Declan, where are you?" she asked

"Cemetery" he said, he sound sort of confused and dazed. Not a good sign.

"Why are you at the cemetery?" she asked throwing on her coat and heading for the door the other two did the same, Donna grabbing her house keys on the way out. The cemetery was not too far from where they were probably only a twenty minute walk.

"I don't know" he said slowly "there's blood"

"Blood?" she asked worriedly quickening her pace.

"I think I hit my head" and with that the phone disconnected. Declan's phone had probably gone flat; he never remembered to charge it. The lack of contact with him just made things seem so much worse though, anything could be happening to him.


	7. Chapter 7: It was the coldest night

**Chapter seven: **_It was the coldest night of the year_

Rachel was the one who found him, lying in front of Bridget's grave. Donna and Ringo were still searching the other end of the graveyard she could see their torch beams shining. She yelled for them to join her waving her torch over her head so they could see her. They ran towards her, Donna almost tripping on some uneven ground.

"Is he okay?" Donna asked kneeling beside Rachel.

Rachel shook her head and shone the torch in her head towards his head, she thought he'd have a head injury but the blood now visible and the deep looking cut confirmed it.

"Call an ambulance" she told Ringo who was already dialing.

…

"How did this happen?" Rachel groaned taking a seat in the hospital waiting room and putting her head in her hands. Everything just seemed to keep getting worse and worse.

"Why was he even there?" Donna added sitting beside Rachel pulling her jacket tighter around herself. None of this seemed to make any sense. Ringo stood behind them going through Declan's phone, they'd found it about fifteen or so meters from where they found Declan lying by one of the older graves.

"Because apparently you called him" Ringo spoke up passing the phone to Donna.

"What?" she hadn't called him, not that she knew of. But there it was in black and white. Donna – 02:03, the call had lasted two minutes and seven seconds.

She passed Declan's phone to Rachel and frantically patted her pockets, searching for her phone. It was supposed to be in her right jacket pocket but it was now in her left.

…

"Is he okay?" Rebecca asked when she met them at the hospital. She looked stressed and flustered as if she had rushed over here, which she probably had, but mostly she just looked angry. Rachel stood up from the waiting room chair she'd been sitting on and headed over to her. She knew it had to be her, Donna and Ringo had fallen asleep ten minutes ago.

"Yeah" Rachel told her "he's going to need a few stitches, but they he'll be fine"

"Oh thank god" she said breathing out a sigh of a relief.

…

"Hey" Rachel greeted steeping into Declan's room, Donna and Ringo behind her "how are you?"

"Confused" he answered "they found sleeping pills in my system"

"Sleeping pills?" Rachel questioned moving to sit on the bed "that's…odd, do you think it was B?"

"Well they wanted me at the cemetery for some reason" he shrugged "and I obviously wasn't going to go voluntarily"

"So you really don't remember anything?" Ringo asked "anything at all?"

"Nope, the last thing I remember is you guys coming over"

"Someone was in your house; again" Rachel informed him sitting on the end of his bed "you should really think about upgrading your security"

"Someone got hold of my phone and called you" Donna added. She slipped her hand into her jacket pocket again; just to make sure it was still there. Luckily it was.

"So when are you getting out of here?" Ringo asked. It was a deliberate change of subject. It just didn't seem like the time to be talking about this, they could at least wait until he was out of the hospital to discuss how he ended up there.

"Umm….sometime tomorrow morning, I think" he sat up straighter pushing himself up with his hands.

"That's good" Rachel said smiling softly tapping out a beat on the bed with her fingers "we should do something, you know to celebrate, just something small"

"Sounds good" he grinned.

…

"Hey" Haylee greeted stepping into Declan's hospital room.

"Hey" he replied sitting up and smiling at her. He was glad to see her. It was nice to be able to talk to someone, a friend, who didn't know anything about Bridget or B. Haylee was normal, she wasn't surrounded with mystery and intrigue, she wasn't being stalked, she was just Haylee. Declan really like that.

"So how are you?" she asked sitting in the chair beside the bed. She seemed happy, very happy, a great improvement over the last time he saw her, when she was crying in the middle of the school hallway.

"Still a bit sore" he admitted "but I'm getting there"

"Great" she smiled, flashing her pearly whites.

"You seem overly upbeat today" he teased she blushed but didn't drop her smile.

"We've moved back into the house" she told him obviously excited

"Wow, I thought the reporters were still hanging around, what happened to them?" he asked. There had been news vans almost outside number twenty six every day since Bridget's body was found.

"They've found a new story" she said and suddenly her smile dropped. He thought that was supposed to be good news, wasn't it?

"What is it then?" he asked "the new story?" she said it so quietly he almost didn't hear her.

"You"


	8. Chapter 8: Centre of attention

**Chapter eight: **_Centre of attention_

"Me?"

"Well I guess they thought it was news worthy" she shrugged sheepishly "good friend of murdered girl found unconscious in front of murdered girl's grave, it made the front page today"

"What did it say?" he asked.

"They said something about you being next" she said fidgeting with her necklace obviously uncomfortable.

"Next?" Declan asked "next for what?"

"Look maybe you should just read it yourself" she said. She really didn't want to keep talking about this. It just didn't seem right; it made her feel a little sick.

…

"This is utter garbage" Rachel snapped throwing the paper down on the kitchen table. The headline read **the mystery deepens. **The article was about Declan and their claims that he was now apparently going to be Bridget's murders next victim.

She knew she just knew that whatever had happened to Declan had something to do with B and she knew that they weren't trying to kill anyone, just torture them. She felt helpless, she just wanted to help her friends but she couldn't figure out how.

"I think it was actually very well written" Zeke joked. Rachel shot him a glare. She was in no mood for jokes.

…

Donna found herself curled up on the couch that evening watching a box of old home movies that had been stashed in her bedroom closet. For a while she was really into filming things and had taken her video camera almost every time she went anywhere. She pulled one labeled **Bridget's birthday **from its cover and placed it in the player.

"What are you watching?" Elle asked joining Donna on the couch. Elle had just arrived home from work and still looked as neat and put together as ever. Donna liked that about Elle; no matter what she was doing she looked clean and polished. She always looked like she knew what she was doing even if she didn't

"Is this Bridget's birthday?" Elle asked leaning forward to get a better look at the TV where the video showed an image of a smiling Bridget unwrapping presents from her friends/

"Yeah" Donna replied sitting up and pressing pause on the remote, she stood up and headed for the door "I'm going to Harold's"

"Chocolate mud cake?" Elle questioned. It was Donna's comfort food; Elle knew that all too well. She consumed a lot of it right after Bridget went missing.

"Yeah" Donna said stopping in her tracks.

"Don't worry" Elle smirked heading for the kitchen "I bought some this morning, I thought you'd need it"

…

"Can't sleep?" Ringo asked as he joined Rachel on the couch. She was wrapped in a blanket, a cup of hot chocolate in her hands, the TV was on and she was watching some late night infomercial about mops.

"No" she pulled the blanket tighter around herself and took a sip of her hot chocolate.

"Me either" he admitted. The two of them sat in silence for the rest of the night pretending to be interested in whatever was playing on TV. Eventually they both fell asleep, Rachel's head on Ringo's shoulder.

…

Donna was sitting on the curb of the street when Declan got home. She watched Rebecca's car head up the street and pull into number twenty two. She counted how long it took, each second seeming longer than the one before. Rebecca got out first, Declan close behind. He was about to head inside when he saw her and headed over.

"Hey" she greeted when he sat down beside her.

"Hey" he said cheerily. He seemed happy to be out of the hospital. It made her feel happier too.

"I think B's calming down" she told him "I mean none of us have gotten any texts since he or she broke into your house"

"Maybe" he shrugged. His happy mood seemed to disappear; it made her feel guilty for bringing up B. She liked to see him happy. Everything seemed so much better when people were happier.

"So do you get that English assignment?" she asked "I really don't"

"Ask Rachel" he told her standing up and brushing the dust from his pants "I've got to go, got things to do"

She knew that he actually did have things to do like the giant stack of homework that he had. But she still felt like she was getting the brush off.

…

Rachel woke that morning to the sound of her brother leaving the house. He slammed the door as he left which she was pretty sure was deliberately done to wake her. They hadn't really been on the best of terms lately and she really didn't know why. She couldn't think of anything she'd done to offend him.

"So you're finally awake huh?" Ringo asked as he came through the front door. He had obviously been for a run as he wearing his running gear and sweating like mad.

"Ugh" she groaned sitting up and running a hand through her bed head hair "what time is it?"

"About nine" he said taking a look at the clock in the kitchen as he grabbed a bottle of water from the fridge "yeah nine"

She stretched and stood, she pulled off the robe she had fallen asleep in and draped it over her arm as she headed for the bathroom. She needed a shower, she still felt half asleep and hopefully a warm shower would wake her up.

…

"So this is what you had to do?" Donna asked when she found Declan sitting on the couch flicking through TV channels. He jumped in surprise not knowing she was there until she had spoken.

"I'm just taking a break" he told her jumping from the couch and turning the TV off "I should probably get back to it now"

"Get back to what?" she asked "if you don't mind me asking"

"Homework" he told her. It was an obvious lie, she knew him too well. He blinked a lot when he lied. It was a subtle thing that she knew the others didn't notice but these days they spent most of their time together, what with living together and going to school together she had noticed a lot of things about him

"Don't lie to me Declan" she snapped grabbing his arm "you're not still looking for B are you?"

"No" another obvious lie.

"It's too dangerous Dec" she reminded him "do you _want_ to be knocked out again? Besides we don't have anything to go on"

…


End file.
